


Yosuke’s No Good Very Bad (But Also Weirdly Perfect) Day

by toomanyunfinishedfics



Category: Persona 4
Genre: Also let's pretend that Charm is still an effect in P4, And it turned into Yosuke having fun flustering Souji, Appearances from the rest of the IT a bit at the beginning and end, But it's mainly Souji and Yosuke so I won't tag everyone else and clutter the tags lol, Love Potion/Spell, M/M, Plus more Nanako bonding time because I'm weak for SouYo + Nanako, Pre-Relationship, Tbh this was a crack idea that my brain ran away with, since I mixed up the P3 and P4 status effects whoops
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-22
Updated: 2019-06-22
Packaged: 2020-05-16 15:26:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 18,936
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19320919
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/toomanyunfinishedfics/pseuds/toomanyunfinishedfics
Summary: While Yosuke often wished that everyone in town would stop hating him, he wasn’t expecting the entire town to suddenly fall head over heels for him overnight--which would have been great and all, except they were just a littletoogung-ho about their sudden feelings for him….





	Yosuke’s No Good Very Bad (But Also Weirdly Perfect) Day

**Author's Note:**

> So I've been working on this fic on and off for like a month just for fun, and I wasn't going to post it originally since I wasn't sure how good it was but I figured it's Yosuke's birthday so I might as well try and wrap it up so I could have something to post lmao
> 
> Happy birthday Yosuke I swear I love you even if I put you through unnecessary stress and embarrassment lol

****Yosuke’s chest heaved as he gasped for breath, his legs burning and his feet aching from propelling himself down the street as fast as possible.

If it was the TV world, he could understand having to push his body to and beyond his limits--and he would even have the bonus of being able to summon Susano-o to give him an extra boost--but no, this was plain old Inaba, which raised the question of why the _hell_ something this crazy was even happening to begin with.

Distantly, he could hear voices, and he cringed at the mixture of calls of his name and bickering, the crowd of people arguing over who would find Yosuke first.

He didn’t even _do_ anything, that was the craziest part! He was used to people ignoring him at best and shooting him hateful glares with barbed words whispered within earshot at worse, so the first morning that he’d woken up and everyone was greeting him with friendly smiles and kind words on his way to school (after he’d pried an unusually clingy Teddie off of him), he’d been a bit weirded out but otherwise took it in stride.

Even if this turned out to be some sort of town-wide prank on him, it couldn’t hurt to enjoy the lack of hostility while it lasted, right?

Except it continued all throughout the school day, and even _more_ weirdly, even his own friends seemed to be in on it: Chie and Kanji giving him friendly slaps on the shoulder and not even batting an eye if he accidentally put his foot in his mouth and said something that would normally offend them, Rise and Yukiko giving him smiles that they normally reserved for Souji and Chie respectively, and Souji--well, it was a bit harder to tell with him, and maybe it was just the small, stupidly hopeful part of his brain talking (telling him that his partner was the last person that would ever participate in any kind of mean prank on him), but the only change he could really pick out was that Souji sat a bit closer to him than normal when they hung out for lunch.

Yosuke was willing to just roll with it, figuring he could just laugh the whole thing off once it inevitably blew up in his face--but it was a bit harder to laugh things off when everyone suddenly started crowding around him as he tried to leave the building after classes were over, vying for his attention in a way that put Souji’s popularity to shame. Except Souji’s popularity never looked so stifling, with what felt like the entirety of the student body slowly swarming around him, and-- and were the _teachers_ eyeing him too? This was getting to be a bit much, even for a joke….

Someone’s hand came to rest on his shoulder, bodies began pressing just a _little_ too close, the gazes fixed on him were making him feel more like a rabbit trapped in a lion’s den than a popular kid that everyone wanted to hang out with--and before Yosuke could even process what he was doing, his legs had already started to move, propelling him straight out of school and away from everyone.

Everyone who apparently couldn’t tell that Yosuke wasn’t interested in whatever the hell was going on with them, and had given chase as soon as he rushed out the school doors.

And now here he was, pushing his body to and past its limits to avoid the group of people coming after him, the crowd growing larger as every person who laid eyes on him in town seemed to be drawn in.

Even _Souji_ wasn’t this popular, and if this situation wasn’t so ridiculous he might have felt smug about it--but this wasn’t popularity, this was just everyone in town going completely _crazy_.

He managed to lose the majority of the crowd with a few quick turns down alleyways and side roads, but was so distracted by glancing behind him that he nearly ran straight into someone.

“Oh, Yosuke-senpai!”

Before Yosuke could properly process what was happening, Rise had thrown herself at him and was clinging to his arm much like she would cling to Souji, and Yosuke’s brain short-circuited somewhere in between _Risette is hugging me_ and _boobs touching arm what do_ as he stared down at her.

“Just the man I wanted to see~” she practically purred, seeming to enjoy the heat that flooded Yosuke’s face. “I knew I would be the first to find you! We’re destined to be together, after all~”

“We-- wait-- _what?_ ” Yosuke choked. “Wh-what about partner? I thought you--”

“Pshh. Senpai’s not interested in me anyway.” Rise waved off Yosuke’s words with no hesitation, and alarms began going off in the small section of Yosuke’s brain that was still working. “But _you_ on the other hand… don’t think I haven’t seen the way you look at me. Wouldn’t it make you happy, getting to have me all to yourself?”

“That’s--” Yosuke swallowed thickly--when he first met Rise, he would have jumped at the opportunity without batting an eye, but now… well, he’d be lying if he said he wasn’t still a bit tempted, but more than that was the nagging feeling that something wasn’t right. “R-Rise, are you, uh… feeling okay?”

Rise nuzzled against him. “Never better now that I’m with you, Yosuke-senpai~”

Yosuke choked out a noise that definitely was _not_ a squeak, completely unused to being on the receiving end of gestures and words like this. How the hell Souji stayed so stone-faced while Rise was clinging to him like this was an even bigger mystery than the murder case as far as Yosuke was concerned.

Thankfully, he was saved from responding by another person showing up--though “saved” might have been a bit of a stretch as he saw the smile on Yukiko’s face, cold in a way that never boded anything well for him… except the smile wasn’t aimed at him, but rather at Rise, surprisingly.

“I believe you’re making poor Yosuke-kun uncomfortable, Rise-chan,” Yukiko said as she took a few steps towards him, and the hand that brushed against his back made him stiffen as his blush darkened.

“U-uh… Yukiko?”

Rise pouted and hugged Yosuke’s arm tighter, pulling him away from Yukiko. “We were having a perfectly nice conversation before _you_ showed up, Yukiko-senpai.”

“Ah, but it doesn’t appear that way to me. I’m sure he would much prefer spending his time with me, than with someone who’s all over Souji-kun all the time.” With a smile still on her face, she took hold of Yosuke’s free arm, and now Yosuke was pretty sure if he wasn’t already dead he was about to be, because now he had _two_ girls clinging to him and--

And this wasn’t right.

Yukiko and Rise were glaring daggers at one another, and whatever the hell was going on, Yosuke had a sinking feeling that it was only going to get worse the longer he stayed around them.

“I-I, uh… I’ve gotta go.”

His brain was too frazzled to come up with a proper excuse as he pulled away from them and ran, ignoring their shouts for him to wait that turned into bickering between them.

What the _hell_ was going on…?

Yosuke yelped as he turned a corner only to find a group of students from school that seemed to light up at the sight of him, their expressions an unsettling contrast to the usual looks of contempt and annoyance they wore when looking at him. Thankfully his body responded before his brain could catch up, giving him a good five second head start before they began chasing after him while shouting for him to go out with them.

Normally it would have been a dream come true for people to be fighting for his attention, but the fact that a) they were literally chasing him down like an angry mob minus the pitchforks and torches, and b) there were guys in the group shouting things like _please go on a date with me!_ made it a bit hard to find any sort of enjoyment out of the situation.

“Yo, Yosuke-senpai! There you are!”

_Oh god no--_

Yosuke wasn’t fast enough to stumble to a halt before Kanji rounded a corner and lit up upon seeing him, nor was he fast enough to pull back before an arm swung around his shoulders in a gesture that Yosuke prayed was just friendly.

“Hey, so uh, while I’ve got you here, I was just… just wondering if maybe--”

All it took was the sight of Kanji’s blush for Yosuke’s fight or flight reflexes to kick in once more, and he immediately bolted with a shout of “ _sorry I’m not interested!!_ ”

Unfortunately, he couldn’t get far before Chie ambushed him--literally, she jumped out of hiding and straight onto his back, and Yosuke only just barely stopped himself from falling face-first onto the concrete floor as he quickly tried to regain his balance to account for the sudden extra weight.

“What the _hell_ , Chie?!”

He glared over his shoulder before tensing, his face heating up once more as he realized there was hardly a few inches between his face and hers--which normally wouldn’t have even fazed him, since he and Chie got in each other’s faces all the time when they argued, except with how weird everyone was acting all day it was starting to make him more and more wary of anything that could be perceived as not platonic and--

“Hey, don’t get mad at me! You’re the one that ran off after school,” Chie huffed, and he would have considered her behavior normal if her arms weren’t still draped over his shoulders with her chest pressed against his back and her chin on his shoulder, one red flag after the other that normally would have gotten him punted straight into the stratosphere yet now for some crazy reason didn’t bother Chie at all. “C’mon, I’m hungry! Let’s go grab some food, and maybe we can catch that new Kung Fu movie at the theater--”

“Wh-- Chie, do you realize you’re asking me on a _date?_ ” Yosuke squeaked, his face flooding with heat, and he prayed for her to get flustered and back away from him and hell he’d even take a kick to the face if it meant someone in this town was _normal_ \--

“Uh, _duh_ ,” she replied with a roll of her eyes. “Now c’mon already, let’s--hey!!”

Yosuke pulled away from her, only feeling the slightest bit guilty as she stumbled and tried to regain her balance--but he had to get away, especially as he heard Kanji’s voice in the distance shouting his name.

The last thing he wanted was to get caught in between the two of _them_ fighting over him. That would be even worse than being caught in between Rise and Yukiko.

Except he was running out of places to hide, and more importantly, he was running out of energy, his lungs burning and his legs shaking from essentially bolting at top speed across all of Inaba.

He could hear the voices getting closer as he turned down another street, stumbling slightly as his legs started to give out on him--

\--before someone caught his arm and tugged him into a small alleyway, quickly putting their free hand over his mouth to stop him from yelling out.

“Quiet, they’ll hear you.”

Yosuke tensed at the voice right by his ear and the body pressed against his back, immediately realizing who it was yet feeling wary and on-edge from seeing how out of it the rest of his friends were.

If even _Souji_ had fallen prey to whatever the hell was happening, then--

“Don’t worry,” Souji murmured wryly, as if reading his mind. “I've seen how everyone else in town is acting. I’m still in my right mind, I promise.”

The tension immediately drained from Yosuke’s body in relief, and he gave Souji a small nod, signalling that he would stay quiet.

Souji moved his hand off of Yosuke’s mouth and let go of his arm, and Yosuke chanced a wary glance back at his partner, needing to make sure that he was really normal. Not that it would be easy to tell anything with how composed Souji always looked, but the fact that he was hardly even glancing at Yosuke and was instead keeping watch to make sure no one from the approaching crowd caught sight of them was definitely a good sign.

“Okay,” Souji declared after what was probably the most nerve-wracking few minutes of Yosuke’s life. “They left, so I think it’s safe now. I don’t see anyone else around.”

Yosuke’s legs finally gave out on him, and he was only saved from falling straight to the ground by Souji’s quick reflexes--and though the touch made him tense warily, he quickly relaxed with a relieved sigh when Souji immediately let go of him as soon as he’d carefully lowered him to the ground.

Thank god someone in this town hadn’t gone crazy. Yosuke was even more relieved that out of everyone, it was his partner that was normal--he wasn’t sure he’d be able to handle Souji trying to jump him or drag him off for a date like everyone else.

Souji lowered himself to sit next to Yosuke, keeping a respectful distance and avoiding looking at Yosuke for longer than necessary.

“So,” Souji began awkwardly, “about… this whole mess.”

Yosuke groaned as he leaned his head back against the wall behind him. “Dude, don’t ask me. I have no idea why I’m suddenly the most popular guy in Inaba--I was pretty sure that was your position, not mine.”

Souji rolled his eyes, the slightest hint of an amused smile tugging at the corners of his lips. “And _I’m_ pretty sure people aren’t this bad with me, regardless of how “popular” or not I am.”

“Yeah… seriously though, what’s up with all of them? They’re acting like they’re all….” Yosuke paused, his brows furrowing in thought.

Souji glanced away as he finished Yosuke’s sentence. “Like they’re all Charmed. Or under some sort of spell, at least. I was suspecting it might be something like that, though it’s hard to say for sure.”

“Heh, leave it to you to get to the bottom of this so quick.” Yosuke grinned, playfully nudging his partner before glancing away as he looked back at the entrance to the alleyway, completely missing Souji’s light blush and the way his hands twitched on his lap. “How the hell did something like that happen outside the TV World, though? And to everyone in town? I mean, if it was just our group that would be one thing, but….”

Souji let out a sigh and ran a hand through his hair. “I wish I knew. Normally I would say we could go with Rise into the TV World to see if she can pick up on anything there, but….”

Yosuke grimaced. “Yeah, no, I don’t think that’s a good idea. I think we’re on our own for this one, partner.”

“It’s been a while since it was just us,” Souji responded with the slightest hint of a smile, catching Yosuke off-guard. “I wish it was better circumstances for you, but….”

Yosuke grinned despite his own embarrassment. “You’ve got a point. Solving a mystery on our own might be kinda fun.” He rose to his feet, feeling rested enough to keep moving, and offered a hand to Souji. “Just like old times, huh partner?”

“Yeah.” Souji hesitated before taking Yosuke’s hand, quickly letting go as soon as he was back on his feet. “Just like old times.”

Yosuke didn’t seem to notice Souji’s hastiness to let go of his hand, too busy focusing on warily peeking out of the alleyway before nodding in satisfaction.

“Alright, the coast is clear. Let’s get out of here and figure out what to do next.”

Souji nodded, and Yosuke led the way out of the narrow alleyway, the two of them walking in silence as they kept their guards up and watched for any signs of other people.

Thankfully, it seemed that everyone had assumed Yosuke was nowhere to be found on this side of Inaba, and the full extent of whatever was happening didn’t sink in until he realized how deserted the streets were, as if literally everyone in town was out looking for him.

He couldn’t help the shiver that ran down his spine. He could only hope that whatever was affecting everyone wore off quickly, or he might just have to skip town altogether at this rate.

“You okay?”

Yosuke turned his gaze over to Souji, giving him a weak smile. “Yeah, just… a bit weirded out by all of this.” Trying to lighten the mood, he laughed and added, “I mean, people actually _liking_ me? Of course something like that could only happen because of some kind of weird magic or whatever.”

(Okay, maybe that had been a bit less lighthearted and a bit more self-deprecating than Yosuke had intended.)

Souji frowned. “Yosuke, that’s not true. You’re an amazing person: you’re kind, you’re loyal, you’re funny and fun to be around, you have a good heart and a sharp mind, you--” Realizing he was rambling, he quickly cut himself off as he coughed into his hand, his face flushing lightly. “My point is, anyone would be lucky to have you in their life. Don’t be so quick to put yourself down.”

Yosuke came to a halt, his face burning and his mouth opening and closing as he tried to come up with some sort of response to all of the compliments that Souji had just unloaded on him without batting an eye.

“That’s….” Yosuke laughed nervously as he eyed Souji, a sudden realization making him tense up slightly. “Uh, y’know, I never asked, but… _how_ exactly are you the only one not affected by… whatever craziness is going on with everyone?”

Souji, for all intents and purposes, seemed completely calm--the only sign that something was wrong was his hands, which even when moved into his pockets were unmistakably twitching and nervously fidgeting as he glanced away. “I… don’t think you want to know the answer to that, honestly,” he reluctantly replied.

“Oh fuck, god damn it, I _knew_ I couldn’t have gotten this lucky, of _course_ even _you’re_ \--”

“Yosuke, wait!” Souji took a step towards Yosuke when he began to backpedal away, removing his hands from his pockets but only holding them up in a gesture of peace, rather than reaching out and grabbing Yosuke like everyone else had tried to do to him. “Yosuke, listen to me. I swear, I wasn’t lying when I said I was in my right mind.”

“But….” Yosuke swallowed nervously, eyeing his partner warily. “But you’re affected by… whatever’s going on too, aren’t you.”

“I promise, I would never do anything to make you uncomfortable. I just want to help you get through this until everything goes back to normal.”

Yosuke kept his gaze on Souji, belatedly taking in the light color in his cheeks and the minute twitching of his hands, like he was fighting against himself to not reach out--but more importantly, he saw the pleading look in Souji’s eyes, practically begging for Yosuke to just trust him, and it was only the realization that he’d never once seen his partner so genuinely nervous that made him gradually lower his guard.

Whatever crazy magic or whatever this was, it was obviously affecting Souji differently than it was affecting everyone else, which… still wasn’t great, but it was a hell of a lot better than having to get through this by himself.

“Okay,” Yosuke said after a moment, letting out a breath and running a hand through his hair. “Alright. Okay, fine--if you say you’re still in your right mind or whatever, then I trust you. I mean, I always trust you, but… you know what I mean.”

Souji laughed weakly, pure relief immediately filling his expression. “Yeah, I know what you mean. Thanks, Yosuke.”

Yosuke rubbed the back of his neck with a shrug. “No need to thank me, partner. Just… could you at least be honest with me?” He frowned. “You said I wouldn’t want to know the answer to why you’re not affected--or rather, why you’re being affected different than everyone else--but I _do_ want to know. So what’s the reason?”

“It’s only a theory,” Souji began slowly, refusing to meet Yosuke’s gaze--he was obviously reluctant to answer Yosuke’s question, yet he was pushing forward anyway, as if he couldn’t bring himself to say no to him. “But I think that whatever this is, it… well, like we established before, it’s working similar to a Charm spell, with you at the center of it. It’s putting thoughts and feelings into everyone’s heads that weren’t originally there, and warping everyone’s minds to accommodate them, thus the… _extreme_ reactions that seemed to gradually grow the more time passed today.”

Though he knew he was getting himself in deeper the more he prodded, Yosuke couldn’t help his curiosity as he asked, “Okay, but what part of that explains why _your_ mind wasn’t warped or whatever?”

Souji coughed into his hand awkwardly, the slight hint of color in his cheeks visibly darkening. “As I said. Their minds warped because thoughts and feelings that… weren’t initially there were forced into their heads. Theoretically speaking.”

“Weren’t-- _oh_.”

Yosuke swallowed thickly, heat crawling up his neck and into his face, all the way to the tips of his ears--but thankfully (and surprisingly), Souji wasn’t faring much better: his face was flushed as his fingers nervously toyed with the hem of his pockets, and his gaze refused to leave the ground.

“S-so, uh,” Yosuke gripped the headphones around his neck, wondering if it was too late to just pretend that this whole conversation never happened yet knowing that they were way beyond the point of backing out of this, “if I’m… getting this right, then it’s affecting you differently because you, um. Already. Had… _feelings_. For, uh.” He swallowed thickly. “For me.”

“Please, just let me do what I can to help you, and… and after this whole mess is done, if you never want anything to do with me again I--”

“Woah woah, hold on partner!” Yosuke’s eyes widened in alarm as he stepped towards Souji, his heart dropping as he saw Souji flinch and curl in on himself slightly. “I never said anything like that! C’mon, you’re my _partner_ \--you don’t seriously think I’d ever want nothing to do with you, right?”

Souji finally looked up at him, and he looked so _scared_ (so scared of _losing him_ , someone actually cared enough to be terrified of even just the idea of him not wanting to be a part of their life) that Yosuke couldn’t help but clear the distance between them, his own wariness and discomfort be damned.

Feelings or not, weird mind-altering magic shit or not, Souji was his _best friend_ , and what kind of best friend would he be if he just let Souji suffer on his own?

It only hit him just how much Souji was actually suffering when he put a hand on Souji’s shoulder, intending on trying to ease Souji’s worries, only for Souji to flinch and blush heavily before stumbling backwards away from him.

“Don’t. Yosuke, just… you shouldn’t….”

“What’s-- what’s that shit _doing_ to you, partner?” Yosuke asked, his worry for Souji completely outweighing his own nervousness. “You said it’s different for you, but… is it… is it hurting you?”

Souji gave him a strained smile. “It’s fine. Nothing I can’t handle.”

“That’s not answering my question.” Yosuke tried and failed to fight the heat that began flooding his face once more as he tentatively asked, “Is it-- I mean… is there anything, uh… anything I can do to help, or--”

“ _No._ ” The firm response caught Yosuke completely off-guard, nearly making him jump in place. “I would never do that to you. I know how you feel about… this kind of stuff, and I could never….” Souji clenched his shaking hands as his voice fell into a quiet, tense murmur. “I could never live with myself if I forced you to do anything at all that would make you uncomfortable.”

Yosuke’s blush darkened heavily. “That’s-- wh-what exactly are you-- actually, I’m not even sure I want to know, nevermind.”

Souji couldn’t help but let out a strained laugh as he moved a hand to cover his face. “This is exactly what I meant. You’re already uncomfortable with even just the thought of me wanting anything at all from you. I don’t even… I don’t want what you’re probably thinking.”

“I’m not _uncomfortable_ , I just… wait, so what _do_ you want, then?” Focusing on whatever was going on in Souji’s head was a hell of a lot better than trying to figure out his own feelings about this whole situation right now, as selfish as it probably was of him to think like that.

Souji turned away from Yosuke slightly. “It’s… I just….” His hand moved away from his face and down to nervously grip his wrist, as if restraining himself. “This spell or whatever it is, it’s… essentially taking what I’ve been repressing for the past few months and… ramping it up to eleven, so to speak.”

“Wait, _months?_ ” Yosuke squeaked. “What--”

“I just--” Souji dropped his gaze, his face burning as he murmured, “I just want to be close to you.” Once the words were out, it was like they just wouldn’t stop, Souji’s body trembling as he continued to speak. “The more time passed today, the harder it’s been getting to even _breathe_ when I’m not near you, like every single nerve in my body is just-- just wound up to the point where it _hurts_ from just how badly I want to reach out, but the thought of you being disgusted with me and wanting nothing to do with me hurts even _more_ and--”

Anything else Souji was going to say was cut off by the feeling of arms suddenly wrapping around him, his mind going blank even as all the remaining blood in his body pooled into his face.

“Partner… you idiot,” Yosuke breathed out, his face nearly as red as Souji’s and his hands shaking as he kept them firmly pressed against Souji’s back, holding him close. “How the hell could I be disgusted with you or want nothing to do with you? I told you, we’re _partners_ \--nothing’s going to change that, I promise.”

Souji swallowed thickly and weakly tried to pull away. “Yosuke, you don’t have to--”

“I want to,” Yosuke insisted, pulling Souji closer and feeling a weird mix of embarrassed and proud when he gave in and stopped fighting him. “I want to help you, partner. Hell, it’s not even like you’re asking for much--that was… well, honestly, I thought it was kinda…,” he trailed off for a moment, before pushing his way past his embarrassment to continue, “ _sweet_ , I guess, that that’s all you wanted.”

“You… don’t mind?” Souji asked tentatively.

Yosuke shrugged weakly, trying to appear calm and nonchalant to spite his pounding heart and his flushed face. “I mean, what’s there to mind? Hugs are a bit girly, sure, but it’s not _that_ big of a big deal, right? And if it’s helping you, then that’s even better.”

He could still feel Souji hesitating and holding himself back, and with a sigh that was more fond than he meant for it to be, Yosuke reached down to grab one of Souji’s arms, moving it behind him to rest on his back and continuing to press it there until Souji’s hand stopped twitching in restraint and he gave in, his hand gripping the back of his shirt. The next hand went much more easily than the first, and as soon as Yosuke’s arms were wrapped back around him, Souji finally settled down with a quiet sigh, all of the tension immediately bleeding out of his body and leaving him practically limp in Yosuke’s hold.

“Partner? You good?” he questioned nervously, turning his head slightly to try and get a better look at Souji, only to end up staring as he took in Souji’s peaceful, content expression.

Souji really hadn’t been kidding--the thought of someone _needing_ him was already foreign, but the thought of _Souji_ needing him, especially enough that even just a hug would be enough to calm him down? It was making Yosuke’s head spin trying to process it all, especially on top of the revelation of Souji’s feelings for him (that he’d apparently been hiding for _months_ now).

So he tried thinking about it from a different angle.

He’d managed to help Souji calm down. Not only that, but he was the _only_ person that could do something like this for Souji, and the thought of having something that only he could do for his partner after everything Souji had done for him made a smile tug at the corners of his lips.

Maybe… maybe this wasn’t as weird as he thought it would be.

Embarrassment slowly giving way to curiosity, Yosuke moved one of his hands up to run through Souji’s hair and was rewarded with a pleased sigh from Souji and a smile that Yosuke had never seen on his partner’s face before, soft and vulnerable and so purely _happy_ from such a small gesture that it made Yosuke’s heart swell to the point of aching.

Never in his life did he ever think he would make anyone this happy, let alone someone as incredible as Souji, and certainly not through something as simple as a hug and playing with his hair.

“D--” Yosuke swallowed the nervous lump in his throat before trying again, his voice hardly a whisper. “Does this feel good? Are you feeling a bit better?”

“Mmhm….” Souji let out another soft sigh as he leaned into the hand on his head, his eyes closed in bliss. “Better than I have all day. Or week. Or year. Or ever.”

Yosuke couldn’t help but laugh softly at that. “I think you’re exaggerating a bit there, partner.” He lightly ran his nails along Souji’s scalp as he continued playing with his hair, blushing as Souji let out a pleased hum in response. “I’m glad, though.”

And he honestly was, regardless of any lingering embarrassment--he never liked seeing Souji suffer, especially not if there was something he could do to help.

(There was also a voice in the back of his mind--his Shadow, or Jiraiya, or Susano-o, who even knew anymore--that practically _purred_ with delight from the thought of the strong, composed, perfect leader of the Investigation Team melting under _his_ touches and showing such a vulnerable side to him and _only_ him.)

(It wasn’t a thought that he was proud to have, but he knew better than to deny any parts of himself anymore, just like how he couldn’t deny how comfortably Souji fit against him and how nice Souji’s hair felt against his fingers no matter how embarrassing it was to think about.)

“If you’re feeling a bit better, we should probably keep moving,” Yosuke pointed out, pulling back slightly, and his lips twitched in an amused smile as Souji whined softly and tried to chase after him.

Weirdness aside, seeing Souji like this was kind of cute, in a way.

He gently moved Souji’s hands off of his back and pulled out of the hug, placating his partner with a teasing pat on the head that, much to Yosuke’s amusement, made the color in Souji’s already flushed face darken even more.

“C’mon, we still need to figure out where we can hide that the town won’t find us.” With a grin and a wink, he added, “I think you’re gonna be in even more trouble than I am if they find us together.”

Souji glanced away in embarrassment, his face burning, and Yosuke couldn’t help his grin widening as he laughed.

“Wow, partner, I don’t think I’ve ever seen you blush this much. I’m honored.”

“I can’t help it!” Souji tentatively glanced over at Yosuke before quickly averting his eyes from his cheeky grin, moving a hand to cover his face as he groaned. “You’re not going to let this go, are you.”

“Nope.” Yosuke playfully nudged his shoulder against Souji’s, finding himself enjoying every embarrassed reaction from Souji more and more.

It was a lot easier to not feel (completely) embarrassed when he knew Souji was ten times more embarrassed than him, especially given how _he_ was usually the one to get flustered from every little thing and _Souji_ was the one calmly teasing him.

Still, he didn’t want to come off like he was being an asshole and toying with Souji’s feelings, either: regardless of where his own feelings lay (which he never thought he’d have to think about before now, but here he was, questioning everything he thought he knew), there was no doubt that Souji’s feelings, amplified by some crazy spell or not, were genuine--and regardless of whether or not they were both guys, he cared enough about his best friend to not want to push too far and offend him.

Honestly, with all the shit he’d said about Kanji’s _preferences_ right in front of Souji, it was a miracle Souji hadn’t already blown up at him, and an even bigger miracle that his feelings for Yosuke remained intact--though it definitely explained Souji’s skittishness about approaching the topic with him now that he thought about it, which just made him feel like an even bigger jerk for hurting not only Kanji’s feelings, but no doubt Souji’s as well.

“But seriously, if I’m teasing you too much just tell me to back off--”

“No, that’s-- it’s fine, I’m fine, really.” Souji rubbed the back of his neck, unable to meet Yosuke’s eyes as he murmured, “I’m glad.”

“Glad… that I’m teasing you?”

“That you feel _comfortable_ teasing me,” Souji corrected. “That you’re not… weirded out, or keeping your distance, or just running for the hills altogether.”

Yosuke laughed weakly. “I mean… if it was anyone else, I think I’d probably be doing all those things, but….” He shrugged and scratched his cheek sheepishly. “You’re not anyone else. You’re my partner, so… I dunno. It’s different, I guess. Still, I don’t want to be a jerk, so seriously, if--”

“Yosuke,” Souji cut his best friend off, his face burning as he forced himself to say, “I seriously… _seriously_ don’t mind you teasing me. It’s fine.”

Yosuke blinked, taking a moment to parse his partner’s words combined with his expression before blushing lightly and grinning as it hit him.

Souji was enjoying having Yosuke’s attention on him. He was enjoying the teasing touches and grins and laughs even if it was at his expense, simply because it was _Yosuke_ , and god Yosuke was going to have one hell of a time trying to keep his hands to himself after this whole mess was over because it was suddenly _way_ too tempting to get in Souji’s personal space now that he knew he was open to being teased.

“Alright, as long as you’re sure, partner.” Yosuke couldn’t resist lightly ruffling Souji’s hair, thoroughly relishing the flustered smile that Souji tried and failed to keep off his face in response. “Now c’mon, let’s go.”

“Where exactly are we going, though?”

Souji’s question gave Yosuke pause, his expression turning sheepish as he rubbed the back of his neck.

“I, uh… honestly, I don’t know. I just figured we should get away from here before everyone started coming back.”

Souji’s brows furrowed in thought, and as much as Yosuke was enjoying teasing him, he was relieved to see his partner regaining enough of his composure to take charge and help think Yosuke’s half-assed ideas through with him.

“It’s true that Inaba isn’t large enough for us to stay in one place without eventually getting caught, especially given how many people are looking for you… but that just raises the question of how thorough they’re going to be in their search.”

“What do you mean?”

Souji frowned. “Once they run out of places to look, do you think they’ll check the same places again?”

“Shit… that’s a good question.” Yosuke grimaced, having thought he was at least somewhat in the clear now that a part of town had already been deemed Yosuke-free by everyone--he figured if everyone came back here, it would just be to go home and not to keep looking for him. “Does that mean I’m just going to have to keep moving around until we figure out some way to fix this?”

Suddenly, skipping town altogether was starting to sound like a good option.

“I hope it won’t come to that,” Souji replied with a sigh. “If we can find at least one place to stay, just to give us enough time to get our bearings and focus….”

“I’d say we could just hide at my place and lock the doors, but I have a feeling Teddie was affected by all this weirdness too… judging by how much he was clinging to me this morning, and how everyone’s gotten worse over the day, I don’t even want to think about what he might try if he sees me now.” With a grimace, Yosuke added, “Not to mention that I’m sure that would be the first place people would look for me if they started doubling back, anyway.”

“Wait… your house might be out of the question with Teddie there, but mine should be perfectly fine,” Souji pointed out. “Even if Nanako’s been affected, she already sees you as an older brother figure, so at worst she’ll probably just be a bit more affectionate; and given how crazy things are in town, I’m sure my uncle will have his hands full and won’t be home tonight. Plus, even if anyone does show up to look for you, Nanako and I can just tell them we haven’t seen you. It’s not like they can force their way into our house, and if they try then I’ll force them right back out.”

Yosuke looked relieved by the suggestion, having already half resigned himself to just finding somewhere outside to hide for the night. “You sure you wouldn’t mind?”

“Yosuke, I would never mind you coming over,” Souji replied with a soft smile.

Yosuke couldn’t help but blush from both Souji’s expression and his fond tone, which in turn prompted an embarrassed blush from Souji.

“I mean,” Souji hastily continued, “if you’re comfortable with that, of course. I completely understand if you don’t want to--”

“Dude, relax! I’m totally okay with it, I promise.” Yosuke gave him a grin and nudged his shoulder against Souji's teasingly as he added, “Besides, after all that running around, I’m starved and exhausted--crashing at your place for a bit sounds great.”

“I can cook you something, too,” Souji added, relief tingeing his expression and his tone as he smiled slightly. “Just tell me what you’re in the mood for and I’ll make it.”

Seeing a golden opportunity and wanting to see just how far he could push the whole teasing thing, Yosuke smirked playfully as he leaned closer to Souji, before busting out a stupidly cheesy paraphrased line that he’d heard somewhere once before.

“What I’m in the mood for, huh? Are you on the menu?”

Yosuke had never in his life seen such an explosive blush on anyone’s face, and between that and Souji’s wide-eyed expression, his mind was stuck between _Oh my god I can’t believe that actually worked if I tried that on anyone else they would have kicked my ass on the spot_ and _Oh my god since when was partner this cute what the hell??_

Deciding to spare Souji from a complete mental shutdown, Yosuke took a step back, unable to help the laugh that slipped out as he said, “I was _joking_ , partner. Damn, you really _do_ have it bad for me if you let me get away with a line like _that_ , jeez.”

Souji glared weakly and turned away, walking off while calling over his shoulder, “I changed my mind, I’m only cooking for Nanako. You can watch us eat.”

Still laughing, Yosuke rushed to catch up with Souji. “Aww c’mon, don’t be like that! It was a joke!”

Yosuke took a careful look at Souji’s face once he caught up with him, briefly worried that he really had gone too far--but no, there was only embarrassment on his face, and the slight trace of annoyance seemed to be aimed more at himself for falling for Yosuke’s line than at Yosuke for teasing him, at least as far as Yosuke could tell.

“Seriously, sorry. I just couldn’t resist.” Yosuke lightly nudged Souji’s side with a lopsided smile. “It’s not every day I get the chance to see you all flustered like this, y’know.” With a chuckle, he added, “Now I kinda get why you like messing with me.”

Souji let out a breath, his face still flushed and his eyes still refusing to so much as glance in Yosuke’s direction. “Somehow, I think you knowing and accepting all of this is even worse for my heart than trying to hide it from you,” he muttered, before adding at a normal volume, “I hope you realize I’m not going to be this easy to fluster once this wears off.”

“Duh, that’s why I’m enjoying it while it lasts.” Yosuke swung an arm around Souji’s shoulders, grinning as Souji stumbled slightly in surprise and finally looked over at him.

“Glad you’re getting some enjoyment out of this,” Souji groused, though there was a smile tugging at the corners of his lips as he leaned the slightest bit against Yosuke as they walked.

For a second, Yosuke had the impulse to pull away as he realized that they were walking around in public like this, but he forcefully shoved the thought away and kept his arm right where it was, his own embarrassment be damned. There was literally no one around to see them anyway, and Souji was happy just from the simple gesture, and… well, when he thought about it, wasn’t making Souji happy more important than worrying about what some random people thought of him?

Even if the thought of someone seeing him walking around with a guy practically cuddled up to him made him want to jump out of his skin and run away.

Damn his stupid insecurities--he was obviously fine when it was just him and Souji, so why was it that just the thought of other people getting involved was enough to put him on edge? They didn’t _matter_ , Yosuke _knew_ they didn’t matter--the only person whose opinion really, truly mattered was walking by his side, harboring feelings for him that Yosuke could still barely wrap his mind around and looking completely at peace just from the small bit of physical contact between them--yet he couldn’t shake the unsettling, conflicted feeling keeping his body wound up with tension.

“Are you okay?”

Souji’s murmured question took a second to process in Yosuke’s mind between the stretch of silence between them and being so lost in his own thoughts, and by the time he managed to put together some sort of response, Souji was already forcing himself to pull away with a troubled expression.

“Partner, it’s fine. I’m fine, I promise.” Yosuke pulled Souji back against his side, giving his shoulder a light squeeze and smiling as Souji blushed.

“Don’t try and distract me,” Souji muttered, obviously struggling to keep some semblance of composure instead of mindlessly melting against Yosuke’s side. “I told you I don’t want you to force yourself if you’re uncomfortable--”

“And I’m not, I swear.” Which was true: surprisingly enough, he didn’t feel uncomfortable doing any of this stuff with Souji--it was just the thought of someone _seeing_ him like this that made his skin crawl. “I just… honestly, I just thought about if someone saw us like this, and I know I shouldn’t let something like that bother me but….” Yosuke let out a sigh, rubbing the back of his head with his free hand. “I guess even whatever craziness is going on in town isn’t enough to magically get rid of those kinds of thoughts. It’s something that I need to get over on my own, and I swear I will.”

Souji straightened up slightly, his expression softening in understanding. “Honestly, I’m proud of you for even being able to manage this much.” He reached up to put a hand over the hand resting on his shoulder, giving it a light squeeze before dropping his hand back to his side. “Changing how you think takes time, and you’ve already come such a long way since I first met you.”

Yosuke couldn’t help the slight, hopeful lilt in his tone as he asked, “You really think so?”

“That’s not to say that you don’t still have a lot that you need to work on,” Souji replied wryly, prompting a guilty wince from Yosuke. “But considering how you’ve more or less taken… all of this,” Souji gestured vaguely between the two of them, “in stride, I’d already consider that a huge improvement.”

Yosuke sighed. He knew Souji was right: there were still plenty of knee-jerk reactions and thoughts that he still had to work on getting over, but he was at least glad Souji was acknowledging that he was trying--and if he was already able to push aside the reflex to put distance between himself and Souji at the thought of someone seeing them together like this, then maybe someday he would reach the point where those kinds of thoughts didn’t bother him, or didn’t even cross his mind at all.

Souji reached up to give Yosuke’s hand one more squeeze before reluctantly moving it off of his shoulder and stepping out of his hold, smiling reassuringly at Yosuke in response to his guilty look. “Yosuke, trust me, I’m more than happy just being next to you.” Before Yosuke could protest, he added, “Besides, we’re almost at my house anyway.”

Yosuke blinked and glanced around, only just now realizing how far they’d walked between his falling into thought and them talking. “Oh, huh. Guess we are.”

“Considering how we haven’t run into anyone, I’m assuming they’re all in the northern part of town now, though it’s hard to say how much longer they’ll be there for.” Souji frowned as he fished his keys out of his pocket, the Dojima household coming into view in the distance. “I wouldn’t be surprised if--”

He paused as his phone began vibrating in his pocket, and he pulled it out, grimacing as he saw an incoming phone call from his uncle, along with a slew of unread text messages from the rest of the Investigation Team--embarrassingly enough, he’d been so distracted by Yosuke that he hadn’t even noticed everyone blowing up his phone, no doubt asking if he’d seen Yosuke anywhere.

Souji barely had the chance to accept the call before his uncle’s voice blared out of the phone loud enough that he almost thought he’d put it on speaker phone by mistake.

“ **_What the hell did Hanamura do?!_ **”

Yosuke jumped at the mention of his name and quickly covered his mouth to stifle his startled yelp, praying that Dojima hadn’t heard him.

Souji gestured for him to calm down and stay quiet as he lifted the phone to his ear. “Hello to you too, uncle,” he replied wryly. “Did something happen with Yosuke?”

“ _What_ **_happened_ ** _is the entire town is going crazy looking for him!_ ”

Dojima’s agitated voice still managed to reach Yosuke even with Souji’s ear to his phone, and he couldn’t help but grimace, even if he knew that whatever the hell was going on wasn’t his fault.

(Or at least, he _hoped_ it wasn’t.)

“The entire town is looking for him? That seems a bit… _much_ , don’t you think?” Souji’s voice was the perfect combination of calm and skeptical, and Yosuke mentally applauded him--not only was all that work with the drama club apparently paying off, but he also must have had nerves of steel to be able to lie straight to Dojima’s face (or over the phone to him, same thing). “Have you tried checking Junes?”

“ _Do you take me for an idiot? Of course I checked Junes, the whole_ **_town_ ** _practically tore the store to_ **_shreds_ ** _looking for him!_ ”

Yosuke grimaced, and even Souji couldn’t help but wince slightly at that, even as he kept an even tone.

“I can’t imagine what he could have done to make the entire town so determined to find him… I haven’t seen him myself since class today, and everything seemed normal as always.”

Dojima let out an irritated huff. “ _Well if you do get in touch with him, you’d better send him my way--and be sure to look after Nanako and lock up tonight. It looks like I’ll be pulling an all-nighter trying to figure this whole mess out._ ”

“I will,” Souji lied through his teeth, ignoring the slight twinge of guilt--there was no way he would ever hand Yosuke over, even if he felt bad that his uncle was going to have to work overtime because of all the chaos going on in town. “Don’t worry about me and Nanako, we’ll be fine. Take care of yourself.”

The line went dead without another word, and Souji sighed as he pocketed his phone.

“Well, guess I was right about my uncle not being able to make it home tonight, though I feel a bit guilty now that I know how stressed he is….”

Yosuke dropped his gaze. “Maybe… do you think I should--”

“No.”

Yosuke jumped slightly, startled by the sharp response, and his face quickly heated up as Souji took both of his hands in his own. “Uh, p… partner?”

“I’m not going to hand you over to anyone, not even for my uncle’s sake,” Souji said firmly. “If I’m right about the effects getting worse as time goes on, it would be dangerous to let you go, and it would most likely only make things even more chaotic. I would never willingly put you into a situation like that, ever.”

“I… y-yeah, I know, I just… sorry.” Yosuke glanced away in embarrassment, though he couldn’t help but smile slightly as he added, “And thanks. I really appreciate that.”

“Of course, there’s no need to thank me.” Belatedly realizing that he was still holding Yosuke’s hands, Souji quickly let go and turned back in the direction of his house, his face flushed. “A-anyway, let’s head inside.”

Yosuke’s smile widened as he followed Souji, admittedly the slightest bit relieved to see him back to being flustered--seeing Souji looking at him with such a serious, earnest expression, telling him that he would never hand him over to anyone and would never put him in danger… it might have been a bit cliche to say that his heart skipped a beat, but it was the only way to describe the irregular pounding in his chest.

Maybe the craziness that was happening to everyone in town was finally starting to affect him too.

Souji unlocked the front door and stepped inside, with Yosuke trailing behind him and locking the door behind them.

The two of them took off their shoes at the doorway as Souji called out, “Nanako, I’m home!”

“Welcome home, Big Br-- Yosuke-nii!!”

As soon as Nanako’s eyes landed on Yosuke, her face lit up--and to both Souji and Yosuke’s surprise, she ran straight past Souji to give Yosuke a hug, nearly making him stumble backwards from the force of it.

“Yosuke-nii, Yosuke-nii! I was just thinking about how much I missed you, and then you came over to visit!” Nanako looked up at Yosuke in awe. “How’d you know? Are you magic?”

Yosuke couldn’t help but laugh, reaching down to ruffle her hair and grinning as she giggled. “Maybe I am, who knows?” With a wink, he added, “A magician doesn’t reveal his secrets.”

He turned his attention over to Souji, intending on making a teasing comment, only to stare at his partner dejectedly leaning with his head against the wall and his shoulders slouched.

“Uh, partner? You okay?”

“Nanako ignored me… I’ve been replaced….”

“Seriously…?” Yosuke sighed, running a hand down his face as he shook his head and muttered, “Weren’t you the one who told me she might be more affectionate?”

“I’m sorry, Big Bro!” Nanako ran over to Souji and gave him a hug. “I wasn’t ignoring you! Please don’t be sad….”

Souji gave an exaggerated sigh. “It’s okay, if you want Yosuke-nii to be your new Big Bro then I understand--”

“Nuh-uh! Big Bro is my Big Bro!” Nanako declared emphatically, and finally Souji gave in with a grin as he crouched down to return Nanako’s hug.

Yosuke shook his head in fond amusement as he watched the two of them, his eyebrows furrowing slightly in curiosity as he saw Souji whisper something to Nanako moments before she lit up and turned to look up at him.

“Yosuke-nii, Big Bro had a great idea!” She reached an arm out towards him, her other hand still gripping Souji’s shirt. “Group hug! That way, we’ll all be happy!”

“Wh--” Yosuke looked over at Souji in embarrassment, letting out a sigh at the sight of his innocent expression and running a hand through his hair before finally giving in with the slightest hint of a smile. “Ah, what the heck.”

He crouched down and swung an arm around each of them, grinning as they both immediately clung to him and feeling his heart swell with a mixture of affection and gratitude as he took in Nanako’s happy giggles and Souji’s peacefully content smile.

Not even in his own home did he ever feel as loved and appreciated as he felt right now.

In a way, he was almost grateful for whatever caused the craziness in town, since it ended up leading him to this moment--a moment that was, unfortunately, quickly interrupted by the loud growling of his stomach.

There was a brief period of silence in the wake of the noise, with Nanako and Souji both looking momentarily confused while Yosuke blushed in mortification, before laughter broke out amongst the three of them.

“Alright, I think that’s my cue to head to the kitchen.” Souji pulled out of the hug with obvious reluctance and stood back up. “You two can make yourselves comfortable in the living room.”

“You sure you don’t need any help, partner?” Yosuke asked, rising to his feet as well and only briefly turning his attention away from Souji to glance down when he felt Nanako attaching herself to his waist.

Souji looked down at Nanako as well before glancing back up at Yosuke in amusement. “I think you already have your hands full. Don’t worry about me.”

Yosuke cracked an amused smile of his own as he put a hand on Nanako’s head. “Alright, if you change your mind you know where to find us.” He looked back down at Nanako and added, “C’mon, let’s go see what’s on TV.”

“Okay!”

Nanako pulled out of the hug in favor of holding Yosuke’s hand, and Yosuke couldn’t help but laugh as he let himself get tugged along towards the living room.

* * *

While Souji had been right in his assumption that Nanako would be more affectionate with him, Yosuke could honestly say that he didn’t mind--like with Souji, she was still aware enough to not be pushy and make him uncomfortable, and really, who could possibly say no to a precious angel like Nanako when all she wanted was to sit on his lap and watch TV with him?

(In the back of his mind, he couldn’t help but worry slightly that the two cousins were so content with such little displays of affection--were they just not used to receiving or asking for anything more than that? Considering how Souji’s parents shipped him off to stay with his uncle and how said uncle was hardly ever around for him or Nanako, he couldn’t exactly imagine either of them getting much in the ways of familial affection save for from each other.)

Still, as much as he was enjoying spending time with Nanako, he couldn’t help but continuously steal glances towards the kitchen, and not just because whatever Souji was cooking smelled mouth-wateringly delicious.

As if reading his mind, Nanako hopped off of Yosuke’s lap as soon as the next commercial came on. “I’m gonna set the table for Big Bro.”

“Good idea, I can help--” Yosuke stood up as well, only to pause as Nanako shook her head and smiled up at him.

“Oh, that’s okay, Yosuke-nii! You’re a guest, so you don’t have to do anything!”

“I’d feel bad not doing anything, though….” Yosuke glanced over at the kitchen once more, a mischievous smile tugging at the corners of his lips. “Okay, then how about I just keep your Big Bro company while he finishes cooking?”

“Okay!” Nanako’s smile widened, oblivious to Yosuke’s mischievous scheming. “I’m sure that’ll make Big Bro happy!”

Yosuke couldn’t help but laugh quietly at that. “Yeah, I’m sure it will.”

He waited until Nanako retrieved everything she needed from the kitchen to set the table before quietly making his way inside, his expression softening slightly as he watched Souji moving around the kitchen with a content smile as he hummed quietly to himself.

Of course, seeing that sweet, peaceful moment wasn’t going to stop Yosuke from being a little shit and having some fun.

Taking advantage of Souji’s guard being down, Yosuke snuck up behind him, making sure that he wasn’t holding anything that would accidentally hurt either of them before leaning forward and blowing a puff of air onto the back of Souji’s neck.

Souji let out a noise that was a cross between a squeak and a yelp, and Yosuke was half-convinced that Souji was part cat from how he practically hit the ceiling.

Yosuke could barely breathe through his laughter, and it was _so_ worth it.

“ _Yosuke!!_ ” Souji whirled on him, his face bright red and his body still shaking slightly, though he could barely even muster up a weak glare in the face of Yosuke’s cheeky grin.

“Sorry partner, couldn’t resist. Didn’t expect you to make such a cute noise, though,” Yosuke teased as he wiped mirthful tears from the corner of his eye, thoroughly enjoying the sight of Souji sputtering in embarrassment before quickly turning back around.

“If-- if that’s all you came here to do, then please go back inside. The food is almost done.”

“Kicking me out already?” Yosuke leaned into Souji’s line of sight with an exaggerated pout, his lips twitching upwards in amusement as Souji pointedly turned his head away from him.

“Yes, because you’re distracting me.”

“Oh-ho? I’m _distracting_ you, huh?” Cheeky grin back in place, Yosuke moved around to Souji’s other side and leaned against the countertop in what was either an extremely seductive or ridiculously stupid pose, not that Yosuke could tell the difference.

Apparently it was a mixture of both, since Souji’s blush didn’t fade even as he snorted in laughter.

“Yosuke, if you’re bored there are plenty of other things you can do with your time.”

“I dunno about that, partner. Watching you’s way more entertaining than anything else I can think of doing,” Yosuke replied with a wink, snickering as Souji glanced away in embarrassment once more. “See? Like I said, plenty of entertainment right here. Besides….” He moved back over to Souji’s side with a slightly more serious expression and put a hand on his arm, his gaze moving to rest on Souji’s shaking hands. “I don’t think you really want me to leave.”

Souji’s face burned all the way to the tips of his ears as he muttered, “It’s your fault. I was fine just knowing that you were inside.”

“Guess I’ll just have to take responsibility, then,” Yosuke teased lightly, moving slightly so he could slip his arms around Souji’s waist from behind. “There, now you can finish cooking without getting distracted by me. Perfect, right?”

“Yosuke, please explain what part of this is supposed to _not_ be distracting me,” Souji replied, trying to come off as annoyed yet only managing to sound embarrassingly flustered, which wasn’t helped at all by the feeling of the movement of Yosuke’s chest against his back as he chuckled.

“It’s fine, the food’s almost done anyway right?” Yosuke pulled him a bit closer and rested his chin on Souji’s shoulder. “C’mon partner, _relax_.”

As if on command, the tension finally drained from Souji’s form as he leaned back against Yosuke with a quiet, content sigh, and Yosuke grinned in response as he saw Souji’s trembling hands go still.

Yosuke nodded against Souji’s shoulder with a satisfied smile. “There you go, much better.”

He blushed lightly as one of Souji’s hands moved to rest on top of his own, feeling warm and comfortable and _right_ against his just like the feeling of Souji’s body in his arms, and he hardly even realized that he’d moved his thumb to lightly run along Souji’s hand until he saw Souji’s smile widening the slightest bit as he rested his head back against Yosuke and closed his eyes.

There was something so peaceful about just standing like this, wordlessly enjoying just being together, that made Yosuke completely forget about everything around him: the entire crazy situation he’d suffered through all day, his own embarrassment--even the thought of coming into the kitchen just to tease Souji a bit was completely gone from his head at this point, leaving him feeling almost as relaxed as his partner, who was only retaining the bare minimum of tension in his body so his legs wouldn’t turn to mush like the rest of his body and send him collapsing to the floor.

Yosuke was so caught up in the moment that he completely forgot that they weren’t entirely alone.

"No fair! I wanna hug Yosuke-nii too!"

Yosuke looked down in time to see Nanako attaching herself to his waist once more, and he couldn't help but laugh softly as he moved his hand out from under Souji's in order to pat her head.

"Sorry Nanako-chan, we weren't trying to leave you out."

Yosuke glanced over at his partner for backup, only to blink in surprise at the conflicted look on his face as he opened his eyes to watch them, like he couldn't decide whether to be happy or annoyed.

He very nearly started laughing again.

"No way, are you seriously--"

"I'm happy as long as Nanako's happy," Souji quickly cut him off, though there was a slight pout in his voice that spoke volumes.

Whatever craziness was affecting the town must have really done a number on Souji if he was reluctant to share Yosuke with even _Nanako_.

It was embarrassing, yet weirdly flattering in a way, enough that Yosuke could ignore the blush heating up his face as he moved the hand resting around Souji's waist with the intent of trying to ease Souji's jealousy. All it took was shifting his hand closer to Souji's and lacing their fingers together, and Souji's expression immediately changed, his face flooding with color as he smiled like he was on cloud nine.

 _Crisis averted._ Yosuke grinned--the last thing he wanted was to cause any sort of bad feelings between the cousins. Making them both happy like this instead was much better.

With peace restored to the kitchen, Yosuke was content to remain where he was: with one hand on Nanako’s head as she hugged his waist, while his other hand stayed loosely entwined with Souji's as Souji continued to lean back against him happily.

Absolutely nothing could ruin this perfect, tranquil moment.

… Well, except for one thing.

"Um, partner?"

"Hm?"

"I think the food's burning."

* * *

Souji kicked Yosuke out of the kitchen for real, which Yosuke figured was fair since Souji _had_ warned him that he was distracting him--but thankfully their meal wasn't completely ruined, and despite Yosuke's protests that it had been his fault, Souji took the burnt portions of the food for himself and left Yosuke and Nanako with the rest.

Unsurprisingly, it tasted just as delicious as every other meal Souji had ever cooked for him, and between the taste and his hunger, Yosuke practically inhaled two helpings before finally collapsing backwards with a content sigh.

“Man, that hit the spot.” Yosuke rested a hand on his stuffed stomach and closed his eyes, already feeling himself beginning to slip into a food coma. “Thanks for the meal.”

“I’m glad you enjoyed it.”

Yosuke cracked an eye open, blushing as he saw Souji watching him with an enamored look on his face.

Embarrassing as it was, it was also kind of… _nice_ , having someone look at him like that without him even needing to do anything. Especially when that someone was an amazing person like Souji.

Yosuke opened both eyes and sat back up, smiling as Souji quickly glanced away in embarrassment and rose to his feet to begin clearing off the table.

“I can help--” Yosuke began, only for both Souji and Nanako to wave him off.

“You just sit and relax, Yosuke. We’ll clean up.”

“Yeah, don’t worry Yosuke-nii! Big Bro and I will finish up quickly.”

Yosuke sighed and got up to sit on the couch instead of the floor, though honestly he was grateful to be able to just lounge around for a bit after stuffing himself. “Fine, fine, I’ll stay out of your way.”

He watched Souji and Nanako head off into the kitchen before turning his attention over to the TV, and after a few minutes of mindless staring he began to feel himself dozing off.

It was only the sound of a doorbell that jerked him back to awareness, his heart dropping and the color draining from his face.

There was no way that anyone was seriously--

Yosuke tensed as he heard the door opening, followed by Souji’s calm voice.

“Rise, this is a surprise. Is everything okay?”

_Oh fuck._

Yosuke kept his hands over his mouth, nervous about even breathing too loudly--all it would take was one person finding out that he was here, and Yosuke would have to be back on the run again.

Nanako entered the living room, looking concerned as she approached him.

“Big Bro said to come in here with you and be quiet…,” Nanako whispered. “Is something wrong?”

“N-nothing’s wrong, we’re just, um… playing hide-and-seek, that’s all,” Yosuke replied quietly, splitting his attention between keeping Nanako calm and listening to Souji conversing with Rise while subtly trying to urge her to leave. “Everyone’s looking for Yosuke-nii right now, but your Big Bro doesn’t want me to lose the game, so he’s helping me hide.”

“Oh, okay!” Nanako smiled, making sure to keep her voice down as she replied, “I don’t want you to lose either, Yosuke-nii. I’ll help!”

Before Yosuke could stop her, Nanako ran out of the living room and towards the front door, much to both Yosuke and Souji’s dread.

“Rise-nee!”

Rise smiled and crouched down to give Nanako a hug. “Hey there, Nanako-chan! Sorry, you were probably waiting for your Big Bro to put you to bed, right? I won’t keep him for long, I promise.”

“Did something happen with Yosuke-nii?” Nanako asked, oblivious to both Souji and Yosuke sweating bullets. “I heard you mention his name.”

“Oh, don’t worry about that! I was just looking around for him, that’s all,” Rise replied with a smile, before adding, “Have you seen him today, Nanako-chan?”

Nanako hummed in thought before perking up with a smile. “Oh! I was out playing with my friends just before the sun went down, and we saw him near the river!”

“The river, huh… thanks Nanako-chan, you’re the best!”

Rise gave Nanako one more hug before straightening up, barely remembering to toss a “Bye Senpai!” over her shoulder as she headed in the direction of the river while giggling to herself.

Souji closed and locked the door, a stunned expression on his face--one that was reflected on Yosuke’s face as Souji and Nanako went back into the living room.

Nanako looked between the two of them. “Did I do good?”

“Sorry partner, I think Nanako-chan wins this round,” Yosuke said with a weak laugh, holding his arms open to her and smiling as she immediately jumped into them for a hug. “You did a great job, Nanako-chan, thank you.”

Souji let out a fond sigh as he sat down next to Yosuke on the couch. “I think she’s been watching too many detective shows--but yes, Nanako, you did a very good job.” He reached out and gave her a pat on the head, his smile softening as she beamed and giggled happily in response. “Thank you for helping Yosuke.”

Just as Souji was about to relax, a thought suddenly occurred to him, and he shot up to his feet so suddenly that he made both Yosuke and Nanako flinch.

“Wh-- partner, what’s wrong?” Yosuke asked, tensing warily as he looked at Souji’s expression.

“Yosuke, can you put Nanako to bed?”

“Huh? Uh, sure, but--” Yosuke paused, the color draining from his face as he followed Souji’s gaze over to the doors to the backyard.

The _glass_ doors to the backyard--ones that were easy to see out of, and easy to see _in_ through.

Putting that together with Rise’s sudden visit to the house, it wasn’t too hard to follow Souji’s line of thought.

With Nanako still in his arms, Yosuke rose to his feet and began to head for the stairs as quickly as possible without outright running, giving Nanako a smile when she looked at him worriedly.

“Everything’s fine, Nanako-chan,” he reassured her, determined to stay calm if only for her sake as he made his way over to her room and pushed the door open with his foot. “C’mon, let’s get you ready for bed.”

* * *

Souji made his way up to Nanako’s room just in time to catch the tail end of Yosuke reading her a bedtime story, and he couldn’t help the enamored smile that worked its way onto his face as he leaned against the wall next to the door, listening quietly as Yosuke finished the story and tucked Nanako in before quietly bidding her goodnight.

Not wanting to accidentally startle Yosuke, Souji opened the door before Yosuke could leave the room and poked his head in. Souji gave him a wordless nod to let him know that everything was alright now, and he received a relieved smile in response as Yosuke slipped out of the room and carefully shut the door behind him.

“Sorry, hope I didn’t take too long,” Yosuke said sheepishly, keeping his voice down as they made their way into Souji’s room. “I’ve never helped get a kid ready for bed before.”

“I’m sure you were fine,” Souji reassured him. “Nanako seemed happy.”

Yosuke gave a quiet snort of laughter. “I think I could’ve just stood awkwardly in the middle of the room the whole time while she got herself ready for bed and she still would’ve been happy.”

Souji shut the bedroom door behind them as they entered the room. “Maybe,” he conceded with a chuckle as he took a seat on the sofa. “But that doesn’t change the fact that you made her night.”

“And what about you?” Yosuke purposely sat down right next to Souji on the sofa, grinning as Souji flushed lightly from the proximity. “Didn’t I make your night too?”

“I don’t know, you haven’t tucked me into bed and read me a story yet,” Souji replied dryly, unable to help the smile that tugged at the corners of his lips as he heard Yosuke laugh. “But before we start thinking about going to bed,” Souji continued, his expression turning slightly serious, “we should really try and focus on figuring out what caused this whole mess today. It’s definitely getting worse--I found Chie and Yukiko hiding in the backyard trying to look for you through the doors.” Upon seeing Yosuke’s worried expression, he quickly added, “I caught them right away, and it was just after you went upstairs. If they saw you I don’t think I would’ve been able to get them to leave as easily as I did.”

Yosuke let out a relieved sigh as he slumped back against the sofa. “Thank god. I thought I was going to have to hightail it out of here.”

“I wouldn’t have let that happen.”

Yosuke blushed lightly as he glanced over at Souji, taking in his serious expression and feeling himself relaxing slightly despite his embarrassment as he smiled. “I know.”

Souji nodded, satisfied, before furrowing his brows slightly in thought. “I still can’t figure out what could have affected the whole town like this, though… I mean, everything was fine yesterday--it was only this morning that I started feeling a bit off, but I can’t even pin an exact time since it was a gradual feeling.”

“But at least that narrows it down. If you started feeling off this morning, then whatever happened must have happened overnight--it’s just the _cause_ that I can’t figure out.” Yosuke ran a hand through his hair with a pensive frown. “Let’s see, yesterday… we went into the TV world, and we fought some new Shadows that showed up at Marukyu….”

“You didn’t get hit by any odd attacks, did you?” Souji checked, frowning as Yosuke shook his head.

“I mean, I don’t _remember_ getting hit by anything weird… the only weird thing I remember is that bottle.”

“Bottle?” Souji frowned in confusion. “What bottle?”

“You know, the bottle of medicine or whatever that one of the Shadows dropped. I told you I’d hang onto it for you since your hands were full and you didn’t have any room left to carry it.”

“Yosuke… please tell me you didn’t--”

Yosuke shot him a look. “Dude, _you’re_ the one that drinks and eats random stuff we find in the TV world without batting an eye, not me. I wouldn’t go drinking something when I’ve got no clue what it is.” Rubbing the back of his head, he added, “But do you think me just… carrying the bottle home with me was enough to do something like this to the town?”

“I don’t think so, but it’s hard to say.” Souji sighed. “I feel like we’re missing one important detail, but I have no idea what it could be.”

Yosuke leaned back on the sofa with a groan. “Me either. I’m too tired to try and figure this out anymore--hopefully everything will just go back to normal by the time we wake up.”

“Hopefully,” Souji agreed. “But for now… if you’re tired, then you can borrow some clothes and use my futon to get some sleep. I’ll sleep on the sofa.”

“C’mon partner, I’m not going to make you do that. It’s your bedroom,” Yosuke reminded him with a frown. “Besides, I could just take some blankets and lie down with you on the floor; I’m sure the sofa won’t be too comfortable for either of us to sleep on.”

Souji glanced away with an unreadable expression, hesitating for a few seconds before finally forcing himself to speak. “Will you really be able to sleep in here with me?”

Yosuke was about to ask Souji what he meant when it hit him, and he winced guiltily. “Look, I know that was kinda--no, _really_ fucked up of me to say back then, but like… not that making excuses makes it right or anything, but that was practically right after the whole bathhouse thing, and we hardly knew Kanji as well as we do now, and… well, it was just different. Even if--” he cut off briefly, his face flushing lightly in embarrassment as he forced himself to continue, “Even if I knew how you felt back then, I still would’ve been fine with sharing a tent with you, because it’s you. You’re my partner and I trust you.”

Souji’s face flooded with color as he tentatively glanced back at Yosuke, feeling relieved by the sincerity in his gaze, and he couldn’t help the pleased sigh that slipped out as Yosuke wrapped his arms around him and pulled him close.

Yosuke smiled despite his embarrassment as he felt Souji melting against him. There was just something about watching Souji’s soft, happy smile as he leaned into the embrace that made Yosuke’s heart swell, a quiet laugh slipping out as he ran his fingers through Souji’s hair and Souji nuzzled against him in response.

“You sure you’re not part cat?” he teased, his amusement growing as Souji let out a noise that was practically a purr as Yosuke’s nails gently traced patterns against his scalp.

“Mmh… can’t help it, it’s your fault,” Souji murmured, before letting out another content sigh as his eyes drifted shut in bliss. “ _Yosuke_ ….”

Yosuke paused, his face flooding with heat as Souji breathed out his name in such a reverent, unmistakably affectionate tone, before distractedly going back to running his fingers through Souji’s hair when Souji whined and pushed his head against Yosuke’s unmoving hand.

That had been… well, he couldn’t say it was entirely unexpected, but it was still a surprise--and what was even more surprising was how little it actually bothered him to hear Souji say his name like that. If he was being honest with himself, he enjoyed the sound more than he probably should have.

“C’mon partner, we should really call it a night,” Yosuke said after a moment, catching a yawn before it could slip out. He lightly ruffled Souji’s hair as he pulled back, amused and a bit endeared by the clear disappointment in Souji’s expression even as he pulled back and rose to his feet.

Souji went over to his dresser and pulled out a spare pair of pajamas for Yosuke, letting him take the bathroom first so he could have time to get his futon and the spare blankets and pillows all set up. He planned to take the bathroom next after Yosuke returned, only to find himself immediately distracted as he tried and failed to keep himself from eyeing Yosuke appreciatively once he returned to the bedroom. He took in the sight of his flushed skin from the shower, his damp hair, the pajamas that fit loosely enough that he could see the slightest hint of Yosuke’s collarbone peeking out--

Tearing his gaze away was yet another test of his self-restraint, not that it even mattered since he apparently hadn’t pulled himself together fast enough. To his surprise, though, even though Yosuke caught him staring, all he’d done in response was shoot him a knowing, cheeky grin and a wink that was borderline flirtatious, at least in Souji’s Charmed mind.

Souji quickly scurried off to the bathroom, hoping that a cold shower would be enough to cool the heat gathered in his cheeks and calm the pounding of his heart in his chest.

By the time Souji returned to the bedroom, he was marginally calmer, yet somehow more jittery at the same time as he fought the urge to dive right back into Yosuke’s arms and stay nestled against him for the night, or more preferably, for the rest of his life.

“You good, partner?” Yosuke asked, looking up from his phone once Souji reentered the room and giving Souji a warm smile that made his heart go right back to trying to fly straight out of his chest.

Souji nodded, not quite trusting himself to speak, and shut the lights off in the room before making his way over to his futon to sit down, blushing lightly in a mixture of surprise and slight alarm when Yosuke grabbed the blankets and pillows that Souji had gathered for him and began setting them up right next to Souji’s futon.

“I-- I can… move the table, if you need more room--”

Yosuke shot him an amused look. “Partner, after everything we’ve done today, do you really think I’m worried about keeping space between us while we sleep?”

“Well…,” Souji trailed off hesitantly. “Are you _sure_ you’re alright with this? You’re sure you’re not forcing yourself?”

Yosuke let out a quiet sigh, though he couldn’t bring himself to be even the slightest bit annoyed--it was his own fault that Souji was so wary, so it was only fair that he should have to deal with talking down the worries that he’d inadvertently put into Souji’s head.

“I’m positive,” he replied, kneeling down by Souji’s futon and putting his arms around his partner to prove his point. “I told you before, I trust you.” With a wry smile, he added, “Honestly, with how the town is right now, you’re the _last_ person I’d be worried about being alone in a room with.”

Souji relaxed against Yosuke, though he forced himself to retain enough coherency to ask, “What do you mean by that?”

Yosuke pulled back from the hug, his lips twitching upward in amusement as Souji made a displeased noise in response, and he gave himself a second to mentally prepare before pressing his forehead against Souji’s. He ignored the heat gathering in his face as he held Souji’s gaze, their lips close enough that Yosuke could feel each shaky breath that Souji let out.

“This is what I meant,” Yosuke said quietly, feeling Souji shiver and twitch as he shakily clenched the front of Yosuke’s shirt, obviously trying to restrain himself from clearing the small distance between their lips. “Even like this, you’re still holding yourself back. I know you would never do anything to me without my consent.”

Souji let out a soft noise that almost sounded like a whimper, and it was only then that Yosuke realized that his desire to show that he trusted Souji was coming off more like him taunting Souji, holding something that he wanted just out of reach while knowing that he would never try and take it on his own. With a grimace and an apology, Yosuke quickly pulled back, intending on explaining himself only to see the pleading look in Souji’s eyes as he continued to hold on to Yosuke’s shirt with a shaky grip.

Yosuke swallowed thickly, his face flooding with color.

Admittedly, he had only himself to blame for this situation, and it wasn’t like he could push Souji away--or rather, he _could_ , and he knew Souji wouldn’t think any less of him for it, but he could feel his heart clenching in protest from even just the thought of doing that to his best friend. What’s worse was the feelings beyond his embarrassment: he was actually _curious_ , and the self-deprecating part of his mind reminded him that he’d probably never find another person who would want to kiss him, and Souji was here and practically begging him with his silent gaze as if he wouldn’t be able to breathe without Yosuke’s lips against his own, and… well, honestly, even if Yosuke wasn’t gay (which he wasn’t, he _knew_ he wasn’t, he’d never even _looked_ at a guy like this before Souji came into his life), he knew that if he had to give his first kiss to anyone, giving it to his partner--someone that he trusted, who made him feel like he was important and worth loving--wasn’t exactly a bad choice, even if it was a bit nerve-wracking and embarrassing.

God, he was actually considering this, wasn’t he. He was actually going to kiss Souji.

Yosuke shifted a bit closer to Souji, taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly before starting with a tentative kiss to Souji’s forehead, trying to work up his nerve as he trailed his lips down to kiss both of Souji’s closed eyelids, and down even further to Souji’s cheeks. Each press of his lips against Souji’s flushed skin was met with a soft noise, Souji’s breathing quickening as he trembled in anticipation the nearer Yosuke’s lips drew to his own.

Finally, Yosuke took a second to brace himself before pressing his lips against Souji’s, and everything began to fall into place in his mind.

It was almost weird how _not_ weird the kiss felt--even though it wasn’t perfect by any stretch of the imagination, Yosuke couldn’t picture a better first kiss than the one he was experiencing right now, with Souji’s lips tentatively pressed against his own. It was only when Yosuke pulled back, took a quick breath, and began to kiss Souji with less nervousness that Souji began to properly reciprocate, and Yosuke knew that the soft, sweet sound Souji let out into the kiss as he tightened his grip on Yosuke’s shirt and pressed closer to him would be forever seared into his mind.

By the time Yosuke managed to come back to his senses and gather enough self-restraint to pull out of the kiss, he was embarrassed to find that he’d shifted at some point to push Souji down on his futon, though he couldn’t even pull back enough to apologize with how Souji was clinging to him in return. Trying to give himself a chance to catch his breath, he put a hand over Souji’s mouth as Souji tried to chase after his retreating lips, only to blush heavily when Souji began peppering his hand with kisses instead.

“S-Souji, c’mon…,” he protested weakly, though he made no move to pull his hand away even as Souji moved it to his cheek and nuzzled against it.

“I love you,” Souji breathed out, a dazed smile on his face. “I love you, I love you so much, I--”

Yosuke’s face was burning as he cut Souji off with another kiss that Souji was more than happy to melt into, allowing Yosuke to keep kissing him until they were both dizzy and in need of air.

“ _Yosuke_ ….”

Yosuke swallowed thickly at the sound of Souji saying his name in such a breathless, reverent tone, his blush and the pounding in his heart not at all helped by the look on Souji’s face as he stared up at him: it was as if no one else in the universe existed, like the world could be burning to the ground around them and he would still be the happiest person alive.

Still, as much as Yosuke was--very much despite his embarrassment--enjoying having the most important person in his life staring up at him in complete adoration, clearly eager for Yosuke to continue giving him any and all kinds of attention, he knew that as the only one of them whose head wasn’t being clouded over by some sort of TV world magic, he had to be responsible and end this before they went too far in the heat of the moment.

“C’mon partner,” Yosuke began, gently prying Souji’s hands off of him so he could move, “we’ve really gotta get some sleep.”

Unable to stand the disappointment in Souji’s gaze even as (or perhaps because) he gave in without a fight, Yosuke lifted both of Souji’s hands and kissed the back of each--and the burning heat that reached the tips of his ears in response was well worth the flustered smile that spread across Souji’s face.

Figuring that there was no point in moving off of Souji’s futon now that he was already on it (or at least, that’s the excuse he was using), Yosuke moved just enough to grab the blankets and pull them over himself and Souji as he laid down, unable to help the quiet laugh that slipped out as Souji looked at him in surprise.

“Don’t want me to stay?” he teased, grinning as Souji immediately latched onto him in protest, preventing him from moving. “Yeah, that’s what I thought.”

Yosuke shifted a bit to make himself comfortable, moving his arms to wrap around Souji, and his expression softened as Souji let out a content sigh and nuzzled against him in response.

“You good?” he checked, smiling as Souji nodded. “Alright. Goodnight, partner.”

He would have thought it would be difficult to fall asleep like this, with Souji in his arms and the thoughts of everything that happened during the long, exhausting day that he went through going through his head, but it took hardly any time at all before Yosuke found himself dozing off to the sound of Souji’s quiet, even breathing.

* * *

The first thing that Souji became aware of as he slowly woke up was the warmth of another body pressed against his own--which he was briefly confused by before the memories of the previous day flooded through his mind, his face quickly heating up in embarrassment.

At least he could say for sure that whatever had been affecting him--and the rest of the town by extension--had definitely worn off. Even if he’d been a bit flustered yesterday, it was nothing compared to the mortification he felt now that he was fully aware of how he’d been acting.

(Despite this, however, he couldn’t help but feel a burst of giddy hope swelling up in his chest--Yosuke had _kissed him_ , there was no way he would have gone that far just for Souji’s sake.)

Souji took another minute to compose himself, waiting until the heat left his cheeks before lightly shaking Yosuke’s shoulder. “Yosuke, wake up.”

“Hnn…?” Yosuke blinked blearily, groaning in annoyance as Souji continued trying to rouse him from his sleep. “C’mon partner, go back to sleep….”

Souji rolled his eyes in fond amusement. “Yosuke, it’s--” he paused, reaching behind him to grab his phone off the ground and checking it for the time before continuing, “--already past 8.”

Yosuke groaned again and rolled over, burying his face in his pillow. “Yeah, too early to be up. ‘m going back to sleep.”

“This is why you’re always late to school,” Souji replied with a sigh and a shake of his head.

Yosuke’s eyes shot open in alarm. “Wait, do we have--”

“No, Yosuke.” Souji just barely stopped himself from chuckling in amusement. “It’s Sunday, we don’t have school.”

“Goddammit partner, you nearly gave me a heart attack,” Yosuke grumbled. “Why are you waking me up so early on a Sunday, then?”

“Because I thought you’d like to know that whatever was affecting the town yesterday wore off.”

“Wait, really?” Yosuke rolled back over to face Souji, letting out a relieved sigh as Souji nodded in confirmation. “Oh thank god.”

Souji watched Yosuke, waiting for the moment when his partner would pull away now that Souji didn’t need to be close to him, only to blink in bewildered shock as Yosuke merely closed his eyes again, their bodies comfortably pressed together and their faces hardly a few inches from each other.

“Yosuke?” Souji tentatively questioned after a minute or two of silence.

Yosuke groaned again. “Seriously partner, have you ever heard of sleeping? You should try it sometime. Like _now_ , preferably.”

“If you want to sleep in a bit more, I can move and let you use my futon…,” Souji offered weakly, unsure of how else to approach the matter without coming straight out and asking why Yosuke hadn’t rolled himself straight out of the futon as soon as Souji told him he wasn’t Charmed anymore.

Yosuke cracked an eye open, eyeing Souji in groggy annoyance before letting out a sigh and--to Souji’s utter bewilderment--reaching out to grab Souji by the front of his shirt, clearing the small distance between them and pressing their lips together.

“Look,” Yosuke began after pulling back, “it’s way too early for this, alright? Give me a few hours to wake up and then I’ll start getting embarrassed about all this--but right now you’re warm, I’m comfortable, and I want to go back to sleep.”

All Souji could do was nod dazedly in response, which apparently was enough for Yosuke, who moved his arm and draped it over Souji’s side in a loose hug before closing his eyes once more.

Souji didn’t dare move an inch as Yosuke’s breathing evened out, his blush gradually darkening the longer he dwelled on Yosuke’s abrupt kiss and the thought of Yosuke feeling comfortable pressed up against him like this. He’d never even dreamed that he would be able to do anything like this with Yosuke, yet here Yosuke was, not only allowing it but willingly initiating….

It was hard to repress the giddy, lovestruck grin that threatened to work its way onto his face.

Though he knew that yesterday had been rough and stressful for Yosuke, Souji still couldn’t help but inwardly thank whatever had caused that chaos for giving him a chance to confess his feelings and live his biggest pipe dream--a dream that Yosuke seemed willing to continue even with the TV world’s influence gone from the town.

Still, as much as he loved Yosuke, Souji could only sit still for so long before he felt himself beginning to grow restless. Each minute that passed by was one more minute that he could be doing something more productive than staring at Yosuke’s (adorable) sleeping face, especially given how he’d lost an entire day of productivity yesterday--and so Souji started his day by carefully maneuvering himself so he could lift his arms and use his phone without stirring Yosuke from his sleep, sending a message to the other members of the Investigation Team to meet up at the gazebo by the Samegawa around noon.

(He would have told them to gather at the usual spot at Junes, but given what his uncle said about the town tearing the store apart yesterday looking for Yosuke, the last thing Souji wanted was to bring Yosuke anywhere near Junes. Knowing Yosuke’s luck, he--and the rest of the Investigation Team by extension--would most likely end up having to spend the day helping put the store back together, and while Souji never minded helping out, he knew everyone would be too exhausted to properly discuss everything that happened yesterday after they finished, which would completely defeat the purpose of gathering together.)

(Plus, Souji wasn’t entirely sure how the town was going to act around Yosuke after yesterday, and he was sure Yosuke wouldn’t be too eager to be around a lot of townspeople after yesterday either.)

Souji replied to everyone’s texts in turn, waving off any questions or comments about yesterday by telling them that they would all discuss what happened when they met up, before checking the time on his phone and finding that it was almost 9 in the morning. Normally Souji would already be out of the house by now, even on a Sunday, and he couldn’t help but let out a fondly exasperated sigh as he looked back down at Yosuke’s peacefully sleeping face.

Getting out of the futon was a bit of a struggle without waking Yosuke up, but Souji slowly and patiently extracted himself from Yosuke’s hold until he was able to rise to his feet and carefully step around the futon. He moved over to his dresser and took out some clothes before quietly leaving the room to get showered and dressed, figuring that Yosuke would wake up on his own by the time he got back.

Of course, he should have known better.

Souji shook his head in rueful amusement when he returned to the bedroom to find Yosuke still fast asleep, only having moved enough to bury his face in the spot where Souji had been sleeping in what was most likely an unconscious attempt to search for the missing warmth of another body.

It was admittedly adorable and brought a smile to Souji’s face, but he knew if he kept letting his feelings get in the way, Yosuke would easily sleep well past their meeting time--and so Souji walked over to the futon, crouched down with the slightest hint of mischief in his gaze, and pulled the blankets off of Yosuke in one smooth movement.

Yosuke immediately jolted out of his sleep with a yelp, jumping slightly as his eyes shot open before narrowing in annoyance as they came to rest on Souji’s far-too-innocent smile.

“Good morning, sleeping beauty,” Souji teased, a smile tugging at the corners of his lips as Yosuke immediately blushed and scowled.

“‘Good morning’ my ass,” he grumbled, trying to grab for the blankets and groaning as Souji held them out of his reach before finally giving up. “Fiiiiine, I get it, I’m up. Happy now?”

“Very.” Souji valiantly kept his amusement off of his face. He couldn’t resist the urge to test the waters now that Yosuke was more awake than he’d been before, and he leaned forward to press a kiss to Yosuke’s temple once Yosuke sat up on the futon, watching his expression carefully out of the corner of his eye and noting with a mixture of relief and elation that, while he was obviously embarrassed, he wasn’t protesting the action. He took a moment to enjoy Yosuke’s flustered expression before straightening back up and continuing to speak. “Go wash up, and I’ll make us some breakfast. You can borrow some of my clothes.”

“Y… yeah, sure,” Yosuke replied, his blush darkening as he distractedly lifted a hand to touch the spot that Souji kissed. “Sounds, uh… sounds good. Thanks.”

Souji left the room, both to give Yosuke some time to compose himself and to get started on breakfast, and by the time Yosuke made his way downstairs and into the kitchen there was only a faint hint of a blush on his face. It seemed that his embarrassment had faded in the wake of dismay as he plucked at the shirt he’d borrowed with a disapproving frown on his face.

“Partner, we really need to get you new clothes. I think the last time I saw that much black, white, and gray in one place was in one of those old movies my dad likes to watch.”

Souji rolled his eyes. “I didn’t realize my wardrobe offended you that badly.”

“Just because you can pull off the look doesn’t mean I can.” Yosuke wrinkled his nose slightly as he glanced down at himself. “No offense to your lack of fashion sense, but I look ridiculous like this.”

“I’m sure you’ll live,” Souji replied dryly, pausing in the middle of transferring the food from the stove to three plates in order to properly look over at Yosuke. He took a moment to appreciate the sight of Yosuke wearing his clothes before adding, “And I think you’re pulling off the look just fine.”

Yosuke blushed heavily. “Did you just-- were you just checking me out??”

“Depends. Did it bother you?”

Yosuke hesitated in embarrassment before finally replying, “I… guess not?”

“Then yes,” Souji replied with a hint of an amused smile. “I was checking you out.”

“ _Dude!_ ”

Souji couldn’t help the laugh that slipped out as Yosuke blushed and covered his face in embarrassment.

“How do you just say something like that so calmly?” Yosuke questioned, his voice muffled behind his hands.

“Yosuke, you _do_ realize that I’m attracted to you, right?” Souji took a moment to enjoy the sight of Yosuke’s blush spreading to the tips of his ears before continuing. “And you’re standing here, wearing my clothes, the morning after having slept in my futon and after you kis--”

“Aghhh alright alright I get it!!!” Yosuke exclaimed, hastily cutting Souji off and glaring weakly in response to his faux-innocent smile. “Damn it… I want the Souji from yesterday back,” he grumbled. “At least I wasn’t the only one getting embarrassed then.”

“To be fair, you just make it very easy,” Souji replied with a quiet chuckle.

Before Yosuke could respond--and insist that he did _not_ make it easy, Souji was just a jerk that knew what buttons to press and enjoyed pressing them way too much for someone who supposedly loved him--he was cut off by the soft patter of footsteps coming down the stairs.

“Yosuke-nii…?” Nanako yawned and rubbed her eyes as she came downstairs and joined them in the kitchen. “I didn’t know you were coming over.”

Yosuke glanced over at Souji, seeing the same confusion on his partner’s face that he felt at the moment, before looking back over at Nanako with a hesitant smile. “I slept over, don’t you remember? I came over last night, and we had dinner together.”

Now it was Nanako’s turn to look confused as she glanced between the two of them. “Really? I don’t remember that….”

“Do you remember anything at all from yesterday?” Souji asked, unable to help the hint of concern that worked its way into his expression.

Nanako’s brows furrowed in thought. “Umm… I remember making breakfast with you for dad, and going to school, and playing with my friends, and… and, um… oh, you cooked dinner, right Big Bro? And then I went to bed.”

Souji and Yosuke shared another bewildered glance, but decided to let the matter drop for the moment, not wanting to worry Nanako any more than they already had. Instead, Yosuke distracted her by asking about what games she played with her friends and listening attentively even as he guided her towards the table so they could sit and eat.

While Yosuke was distracting Nanako, Souji pulled out his phone and gave his uncle a call, only to find out that it wasn’t just Nanako whose memory was affected: Dojima couldn’t seem to remember for the life of him why he’d had to stay overnight, which only seemed to make him even more irritable than normal--and apparently detectives didn’t like being left in the dark, not that Souji was about to volunteer the information that his uncle was not-so-subtly trying to grill him for. Instead, he smoothly dodged Dojima’s questions and managed to hang up and join Yosuke and Nanako at the table with his uncle none the wiser to anything that Souji knew about yesterday.

They finished breakfast, said goodbye to Nanako, and left the house before Souji finally told Yosuke about his uncle, confirming his partner’s suspicions.

“I had a feeling, but I still don’t get it,” Yosuke commented. “I mean, I’m not _complaining_ , but like… how come our friends remember, but no one else does?”

Souji shrugged. “TV world magic,” he replied, as if that explained everything--which, as far as either of them could figure at the moment, it pretty much did. “Are you going to stop off at home first?”

“Yeah. Hopefully my parents haven’t dragged Teddie off to help fix up Junes by now, or we’ll just have to have the meeting without him.”

Speaking of Yosuke’s parents, Yosuke knew that he was going to be in for one hell of a lecture--not only had he skipped work yesterday, but he hadn’t gone home last night, and he’d kept his phone off (and still had it off) all day yesterday for fear of being found by someone because of his phone blowing up with messages and calls--but he was determined to put off thinking about it until he absolutely had to. Unfortunately, he highly doubted his parents would accept his perfectly legitimate and genuinely honest excuse of being chased around Inaba by practically everyone living in town as his reason for why he’d disappeared.

With a teasing grin, Yosuke pushed aside all thoughts of his impending doom at the hands of his parents and instead said, “I’ve gotta change out of these clothes and put on something halfway decent, too.”

Souji rolled his eyes. “You say that, but you could have easily just put your clothes from yesterday back on.”

“Dude, no way.” Yosuke scrunched up his nose in protest. “My clothes were all sweaty and gross after all that running around I did. Even if your wardrobe is boring as hell, at least it’s clean.”

Souji shook his head slightly in amusement. “I still think you look just fine even in my ‘boring’ clothes, but… well, I’m sure you’ll have to deal with less questions if you don’t show up wearing my clothes, so getting changed while you’re home might not be all that bad of an idea.”

Yosuke blushed lightly. “O-oh, uh… yeah, right. That’s definitely why I wanted to get changed.”

“You didn’t even think about that happening, did you.”

Yosuke laughed nervously and sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck as Souji shot him a look. “That’s what I have you for, right partner?”

“On second thought, I should’ve encouraged you to stay in those clothes,” Souji teased with a fake sigh of disappointment. “It would’ve been fun to see how flustered you’d get once someone brought the subject up.”

Yosuke elbowed Souji in the side with an annoyed look that was belied by the twitching of the corners of his lips, an expression that was mirrored by Souji despite his valiant efforts to keep a straight face.

“Jerk,” he groused with no small hint of fondness. “I swear I’m gonna find a way to fluster you in front of everyone just for that.”

Souji raised an eyebrow, turning slightly so he could reach out and cup the side of Yosuke’s face in his hand, and he couldn’t keep himself from smiling in a mixture of amusement and endearment despite his best efforts as Yosuke’s face immediately began to heat up under his touch.

“Of course you will,” Souji replied placatingly, giving Yosuke’s cheek a gentle pat before continuing to walk.

It took a few more seconds for Yosuke’s sputtering brain to start working again, but once it did, he fixed Souji with a flustered scowl (definitely _not_ a pout) and rushed to catch up with him, vowing once more to get Souji back for all the amusement his partner was getting at his expense.

* * *

When an irritated Yosuke met up with Souji and the rest of their friends at noon, with a sheepish-looking Teddie trailing after him, Souji immediately knew something was wrong.

Still, when Souji shot his partner a questioning look, all he received was a small shake of his head before Yosuke turned his attention down to Teddie and gave him a small shove forward.

“Alright you dumb bear, fess up to them and apologize.”

Teddie stumbled forward as he was shoved but quickly regained his balance, pouting slightly as he said, “You’re being bear-y mean, Yosuke!”

Souji could see the confusion and curiosity on his friends’ faces, but he could also see them pointedly avoiding looking at Yosuke with varied degrees of embarrassment and shame, so he figured it would be up to him to voice their unspoken question.

“Yosuke, what do you mean? Did Teddie do something?”

Yosuke didn’t respond, instead merely glaring at Teddie, who shrunk under his gaze and poked his fingers together nervously.

“W-well Sensei, um… you know that bottle Yosuke found in the TV world?” Teddie started, tentatively glancing at Souji and continuing after seeing him nod. “Well, I gave it another sniff, and realized it was a love potion--and I didn’t mean any harm, I just… well, I thought maybe I could use it to get all the girls to fall for me so I could score, so I, um… took it while Yosuke was asleep?”

When Teddie didn’t continue, Yosuke picked up where he left off, irritation clear in his tone. “The dumb bear took it and dumped the contents in the town’s water supply--except instead of falling in love with _him_ , everyone ended up going crazy over _me_.”

“I didn’t know that was gonna happen!” Teddie protested with a huff, but was unable to get much else out before the rest of the team rounded on him, directing their frustration towards the cause of their embarrassment.

The only one to not voice any protests was Souji, which quickly caught Teddie’s--and by extension, everyone else’s--attention, as Teddie wasted no time in rushing over to his Sensei and hiding behind him.

“Sensei, you bear-lieve I didn’t mean it, right?”

Souji sighed and gave Teddie a pat on the head. “Whether you meant it or not, you still owe everyone an apology. Yosuke went through a lot of unnecessary stress yesterday, and I’m sure everyone else isn’t very pleased with how the potion made them act.”

“What about you, Senpai?” Rise asked, and Souji tried not to feel too unnerved by the almost knowing smile on her face.

“Hey, yeah! Why’s it sound like you’re not including yourself in that?” Chie added.

“Well, that’s….” Souji glanced over at Yosuke for help, only to watch as a shit-eating grin slowly worked its way onto his partner’s face.

“Well you see,” Yosuke began, swinging an arm around Souji’s shoulders and thoroughly enjoying the look Souji shot him in response, “Souji was actually the most normal out of all you guys--and by that, I mean he was the only one that wasn’t trying to drag me off or jump me,” he added wryly, waving off everyone’s apologies before they could so much as open their mouths. “Not your fault, guys, I get it, I’m just joking--but anyway, I ended up spending most of yesterday with Souji once he found me, since like I said he wasn’t acting weird or anything.”

“But why wasn’t Souji-kun acting weird like the rest of us?” Yukiko questioned. “Did the potion not affect him?”

Yosuke’s grin widened, and Souji turned slightly to shoot him another look even as he answered Yukiko’s question. “It… did affect me, just not the same way. It’s a bit difficult to explain.”

“Yeah, you should’ve seen him,” Yosuke continued, relishing the light blush that was starting to work its way onto Souji’s face. “He could hardly even look at me without blushing, he couldn’t bring himself to touch me or even stand too close to me--”

“ _Yosuke_ ,” Souji hissed, though it was less of a warning and more of a flustered plea.

“Aww, c’mon partner!” With a cheeky grin still on his face, Yosuke leaned closer to Souji and whispered, “I thought you liked when I tease you?”

“ _Yosuke!!_ ”

Souji turned bright red and pulled away from Yosuke in order to cover his ear and weakly glare at his partner, who was too busy laughing to care.

“Told ya I’d find a way to fluster you in front of everyone,” Yosuke teased once he got his laughter under control, amusement still shining in his gaze.

“Okay, _what_ is going on with you two?” Chie interrupted, looking back and forth between the two of them with an expression of bemusement that seemed to be echoed by the rest of the team.

“It’s a long story,” Souji quickly replied, before Yosuke could open his mouth and embarrass him further.

Teddie looked back and forth between Souji and Yosuke before perking up in realization. “Oh! Are you two scoring? Is that what happened?”

Yosuke choked and blushed heavily. “We are _not_ \--”

“That depends on how you define ‘scoring’,” Souji smoothly interjected, seeing his opportunity to turn things back around on Yosuke and seizing it. He cracked a small smirk--as if to say _don’t try and start games you know you can’t win_ \--when Yosuke whirled on him,and nearly started laughing at the mixed look of dread and embarrassment on Yosuke’s face in response. “I mean, we _did_ technically sleep together--”

The words barely left Souji’s lips before the group exploded with questions and exclamations, and Yosuke shot Souji a withering glare, his face flushed as he tried to do damage control and clear up the misunderstanding that Souji had purposely made.

For someone that supposedly loved him, Souji could be a real jerk sometimes.

(Even if Yosuke knew he was technically the one that started it.)

Still, Yosuke couldn’t be too annoyed, not when he got the last laugh by abruptly pulling Souji into a kiss as an answer to everyone’s questions: the blush heating up his cheeks was well worth watching all of the blood in Souji’s body rushing to his face, and listening to the subsequent teasing aimed at Souji from their friends because of it was even better.

Maybe he would have to thank Teddie for unintentionally causing all that chaos yesterday after all, since it gave him the push to be able to act like this with Souji and to know that Souji genuinely enjoyed it despite their mutual embarrassment.

 _… Or,_ Yosuke thought to himself as he watched Souji with a mischievous smile, _maybe I can just extend Teddie’s shifts as a punishment, and use that extra free time to spend on flustering Souji instead._

As far as Yosuke was concerned, that sounded like the better, more enjoyable (and less damaging to his pride) option.

And if having a bit of fun trying to fluster Souji turned into something more… well, Yosuke couldn’t say he was opposed to the idea, not anymore.

**Author's Note:**

> Honestly I'm not crazy with the ending since I hit that wall of "I ran out of things to write but I still have to wrap up the fic" lmao but hopefully the fic was enjoyable nonetheless!


End file.
